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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GREDC 2019/09/03 2018-2020Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic Development 11th Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii September 3, 2019 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic ORDER: Development was called to order at 9:01 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Vice Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Ms. Karen Eoff, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Valerie Poindexter, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The Chair called Jon Olson, who registered to speak to comment regarding Comms. 374, 426, and 428, and came forward when called. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Mr. Olson. I also got a note here that says our courtesy sight in Na`alehu has no testifiers, so I'll be closing public testimony at this time and moving on to business of today. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Mr. Clerk, we're going to take a few things out of order, if we could start with Communication 426, please. Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Council of Business: Members, the following item was taken out of order: GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 Comm. 426: REQUESTS AN UPDATE BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION REGARDING ROAD IMPROVEMENTS ON HIGHWAY 130 AND COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL BETWEEN THE STATE, COUNTY, AND THE COMMUNITY PERTAINING TO TRAFFIC IMPACTS From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated August 14, 2019. Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 426. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: So if you live in Puna, a few weeks ago you experienced carmageddon. And I think we all got so many calls and emails, text messages if you had my cell phone number, about how we were just stalked. And I was very concerned, because I had to get to work, with kids I needed to get to school. I started to think about emergency personnel, the ambulances that were on the road, disabled population that has a routine and needs to get to certain places and once their day is out of whack, there's panic. I was little bit panicky. Because I thought if this was an emergency situation, how were we going to get out? I asked the Division Head of Highways Division for the State Ed Sniffen if he could come before the Council today to just talk story. Explain to my colleagues how contraflow works. I was doing some research, and I found that in 2009 the Council at the time had passed a resolution calling for contraflow because traffic was an issue. And it's a bigger issue today, knowing that Puna is growing at a very significant pace. And so I just wanted to invite you up Ed, I know that you also have Acting Engineer for the island here, Harry. If you guys could just introduce yourselves for the record and maybe we can start with how contraflow works. And just a little bit for my colleagues, you probably read about in the paper. But there was some restriping that was happening along Highway 130, and I had reached out to the engineer at the time, Don Smith, earlier in the week. Because I saw some action happening on the road. But I didn't get an email, I didn't get a call, I didn't get a letter, I didn't get a text. And it was the day of carmageddon, in which I got a response from him that was basically like, it's going to get worse before it gets better. And I thought, oh crap. We need to get some answers here, and figure out if there's a way that county and state can work better to just bridge communication. So with that, Ed. (Note: At this time, State Highways Division Deputy Director Edwin Sniffen and Highways Division Chief for the Big Island Harry Takiue came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. SNIFFEN: Aloha, Chair, Members. Ed Sniffen Hawaii DOT (Department of Transportation), Highways Division. With me I have Harry Takiue, he's the head of our Highway Division here on the Big Island. Page 2 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 First and foremost, I have to apologize to the public for that August 8fh timeframe. In general whenever we do a project, there's always a week's timeframe that we provide the public of notification of lane closures, always. For that one it slipped, and that's from my perspective, from my side. So our staff is doing what they're supposed to, we didn't get the message out to the public. Not just to you, but to everybody. Our state legislatures were calling the same day as well. So that cannot happen, we made sure we re -upped our internal process to ensure that doesn't happen again. When we do that, we process those notifications through the County Administration as well. So everybody's updated on what lane closures we have. And I think, I don't know if you guys, the Council, is set to receive all of the notices that we send out to the media. Every week we send out lane closures notices to the media, and all of our legislators are copied on it. If you're not, let us know and we'll take of that, okay. So that's the first apology for August 8�h. The second is, when we started progressing the work on Highway 130 to do the lane closure or to do the contraflow work, the last piece of that work, is supposed to be to close the free right on Shower Drive. That was the first thing we did. And I don't know where we broke down in our communications or our processes, but it broke down. So after we hit that snag on the first day, we corrected it, we opened it back up again. Throughout the rest of the timeframe that were doing the work, the traffic was much better. Then we closed it off at the end, to make sure that everybody got back on the improvements before we took away on that free right. So that's kind of what happened on that August 8fh first week of work. Now the reason we push forward on the contraflow work itself. In general as the testifier had talked about, about 15 years ago we started up on Planning for Highway 130. Fully understanding that this is an area of huge growth for the state, huge traffic growth and high accident rates. During that timeframe we came up with a project to widen that area from four to six lanes throughout, upwards of $200 million in improvements. We've been talking to legislature for the last five years, that we don't have that kind of money. So in general the state refocused its program towards safety and preservation improvements first fully understanding we still have problems in that area though. So we move forward in improvements in that area, like the roundabout at Old Government Road. We took care of that with huge pushback from the community, but we knew it was a safety issue so we did it anyway. After it was put in place there were no complaints after that. We're moving forward on the next phase of safety improvements at intersections, and those are going to be roundabouts at three intersections that we saw high accident rates or low efficiencies. That's the next phase, and that's about $15 million to $20 million. The first phase of that improvement that the testifier talked about is supposed to be $80 million we don't have it. So we're moving Page 3 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 forward on things that we know we can do now, rather than moving forward on planning that we know we cannot afford. That's the state's direction. We pushed forward on this contraflow, because we knew we couldn't wait till later to provide the congestion relief that we know we can provide very quickly with this contraflow. Overall we spent about $500,000 on the contraflow work, restriping the barriers, the new signage. And we have tremendous improvements because of it. In that one mile stretch from Kaloli to Shower, typically it took about 15 minutes for people to get through and that's just through that study area. So looking at 15 minutes from that one mile stretch, we're not even counting the backlog that occurs outside of that. Now after the contraflow started, we're saving about nine and a half minutes. So it's very quick for everybody to get through that area, so we've reduced the backlog. In general during peak times from 6:00 to about 7:15, we're pushing about 1,000 vehicles through that area. Now we have over 2,000 people getting through that area daily, just in that one hour period. So there are significant improvements we're seeing on the mainline there. In order to provide that additional capacity through that area, we took one lane to the opposite direction, that's the contraflow. And we had to restrict left turns to ensure we don't have safety issues, or operational issues through that area. So there's two intersections that we eliminated the left turns during the morning periods. That allows us to push more volumes through that Highway 130 area, but less through the side streets. And that was kind of by design, because what we were seen prior to the contraflow, we saw a lot of people who were getting stuck on 130 cutting through the neighborhoods to come back out at Shower at the free right. You can say it's cheating. But for me the overall perspective, is people were cutting through lower volume roads where we don't expect those high volumes to go through and avoiding the high volume roadways. So if you're driving pass people's driveways, their houses, where kids are walking, you're driving pass these areas where they shouldn't be. We don't want the high volume next to somebody's house, we want them back on Highway 130. So that was the overall need for the contraflow. We knew we could do this now, without waiting for that $15 to $20 million improvement to come through prior to doing it. So that was the short and long of the whole situation. Any questions on that? CHR KIERKIEWICZ: That was very helpful. You know, I think back to a meeting that Don hosted in October of 2018. And he mentions that there would be some kind of digital signage overhead to alert folks as to which of the lanes were open for contraflow. Right now, you're staff is having to put the cones out in the morning, early in the morning and then take them away later in the day. And so, I just wonder about the cost impact. And if there's other projects that are not being given the attention that they deserve, because you're having to put out cones. And so is there thought of installing that electric signage at some point? Page 4 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 MR. SNIFFEN: There is. That's the intended plan. Again, I didn't want to wait for the signage to come in before we gave the improvement to the community. In general it's going to cost us about $200,000 per year, to cone everything in the mornings. To put them up, and take them down. In general the signalization for that one mile route is about $2.5 million. So overall it's a good budgetary push for us to get moving now, over planning for those signals to put it up later. But that's the intent, to get it all signalized. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Are there adjustments to contraflow that you are considering? I get a lot of calls and emails about people wanting that dedicated shoulder lane at Shower to be put back, or if there's any way to add a shoulder lane off of Kaloli? So that there could be a bit more smooth transition of cars onto the highway. MR. SNIFFEN: So typically when we start making adjustments operationally to a system like the contraflows, and we did this in Nanakuli and Kahekelii Highway on Oahu. In those areas it takes about a month, for everyone to kind of adjust to the new situation. So what we do is usually for the first two weeks, we monitor. The next two weeks of that month we start taking counts on everything, where the redistributions go, where the retiming goes, and how everybody's looking at things. The reason that we monitor is to ensure that there's no safety issues first; and secondarily we look at to see what kind of operational improvements we can make to make this so even better. We know that we took as much as we could into consideration prior to the design, or prior to the implementation. But we fully know that once it starts operating, there's going to be things that we didn't expect. So there's always tweaks that we can make, based on the data that we get them, based on the feedback we get from the communities. So I won't promise that the right turn will come back at Shower or Kaloli, but definitely we'll take a look at it and take any community concerns into consideration while we move forward. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Just a couple more questions. I was on the department website, and I saw a map for highway program status, projects by area. And about on the third or fourth page on the top of the page, there was a project for Kea`au-Pahoa road improvements between Kea`au bypass and Pahoa-Kapoho Road. Widen shoulder, bikeway, bus pullouts, median treatment, traffic signals or roundabouts, it talked about an advertised date of July 2019. So I got excited right, because that was a couple months ago and I'm wondering, okay, did like an RFP (Request for Proposals) go out? And it said that it cost greater than $15 million. Can you just explain to me, what that line item is and what the process is? Because on previous pages, I saw projects that had actually moved forward and there was a—they talked about progress being made in terms of percentage so I didn't see that for this particular project. Page 5 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 MR. SNIFFEN: Yeah. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Just wondering where it is, in terms of priority. MR. SNIFFEN: So this one didn't go yet. We got to update that date. This is one of the projects that we put out for INFRA (Infrastructure for Rebuilding America) grants, through the Federal Government to try and get additional funding coming into the state for this island. And the project wasn't ready to put out yet. We'll update it, and I'll get you a date that it's going to be ready to advertise again. That project is the first phase of the improvements that we're looking at on the corridor. And I like I said, it's supposed to be a widening from a four to six lane. We know we don't have the money for that. But we do know that we need to realign those intersections, and reset the operations at those intersections immediately. So that's the first phase of the project that we're looking at. It's about a $15 to $20 million project, that's looking at roundabouts at three different intersections. And looking at what we can do, to improve Highway 130 for all users, vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists. So we're trying to see what we can do, where we need to widen, what areas we need to adjust in the intersections to ensure we can make more user friendly to everyone. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: I think a couple months ago, Harry reached out looking for a support letter for, I think it was the Build Grant. So that we can get some funding for traffic signal at Kaloli, and potentially other roundabouts along 130. We didn't get those grants, I'm assuming? MR. SNIFFEN: That's correct. We got notice just recently that we did not receive any Build Grant funding. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. MR. SNIFFEN: To tell you the truth, the Build Grant monies are really restrictive. So if we're looking at the funding that comes in from discretionary grants, I'd rather get the INFRA grants. And those are coming up soon. We've submitted this project for both Build and INFRA, so we'll see if we can be successful there. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. And if INFRA doesn't work out, are there other funding opportunities that we can consider going after? MR. SNIFFEN: Yeah, so this project is going to be programed in our budget anyway. This is going to go forward. As the testifier had talked about, this area has some of the most dangerous intersections throughout the state. So we've been Page 6 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 targeting this area to ensure we can make improvements, but in the ways we can afford. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, that's helpful. Thank you for being creative, and innovative. A couple more questions, I have here. You know, I think last week we saw an article in the paper about a traffic light being installed at Shipman Industrial Park, and I know my colleagues have some questions about that. But what I appreciated was that there was that heads up to the community that this was going to happen in November. And so you've talked about internal processes being refined to ensure proper communication out to all community stakeholders. Can you just share with us what that is, and how we can as state and county work better together to get really critical information out to residents. I know that Public Works has a really excellent PR (Personal Relations) person, Denise Laitinen who is always pushing out information. So just wondering if there are intergovernmental protocols that we can formalize, so that there's seamless flow of information. MR. SNIFFEN: Of course. So for us, our head here works with the head of Public Works very closely. So when Don was here, they would meet once a month to talk about all the initiatives going forward. Last thing I want is, the state to shut down lanes in the same area the county is doing it, right, we would double the impacts to everyone. So we try to program our work throughout the year to ensure that we minimize the cross contamination if you will, of traffic impacts from the state and the county. We also try to see how quickly we can put things out, in different areas. For us the highest priority is to implement, rather than to just plan it. With that being said, we want to make sure when we implement, we implementing in a smart way so that we minimize our own impacts on doubling up on our own system. So that's what Harry's job is going to be with David, to ensure that we both understand where county and state is going to be for the year. Secondarily we start getting more information to our PIO (Public Information Office), who does a really good job of updating our website, with information and notices and sending it out to the public, both the media and the area legislatures. For her, Shelly, she does an excellent job when we give her the information. In this case we didn't, so this is not on her, this is on us. For this one our staff understood that we needed to get this in place prior to that August 26�h timeframe where we shut down all construction projects for all state highways. So there's a push there, again, we didn't follow protocols in order to get things done or notice to the public before we started to moving forward. So internally there's a sign -off period for me. If I don't get the information timely, the project doesn't go until I say, we get the information out there public in a timely matter. So that's the hold that we have here. Harry and David will be working together very closely, to be sure that both of our PIO's are sending out Page 7 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 information for each of the different districts that we're looking at. So that's kind of how we're setting it up. When we send out to media, we'll also send out to all area legislatures throughout. So everybody gets those notices, and it will be put on our DOT (Department of Transportation) website and our "Go Akamai" website as well. So it's updated in the project program status area, and our DOT website lane closure area. We're tying all of our lane closures now into Go Akamai. So when you go on to Go Akamai site, it's not going to just be an Oahu site. You're going to see a lot more of statewide routes on with cameras and travel times. And that's coming up very soon. I think you guys started putting it up already, right? So travel times are coming up, we're working with county to time all in. Those are the kinds of processes we're setting up. But in the end, it's going to be on me. If I don't see that we notice the public and there is legislatures timely, projects are not going to go. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, that's helpful. And it's good to know that you're going to be including road improvements to Highway 130 in the budget, regardless of available federal funding. Stay close in touch with myself, and my fellow Puna Council member. I know that we are working very hard at monthly meetings with community, and others here at the county to really take a look at how we can improve regional connectivity. And just transportation in the area to ensure public health and safety. I want to mahalo you and Harry for taking the time to be here, it means a lot to me that you care so much to show up. I know how busy you are, so I don't take your presence for granted. And I just want to thank you, and reassuring us that you will remain a partner with the county from here on out, so thank you. MR. SNIFFEN: I appreciate it, thank you. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Want to ask my colleagues, if they have any other questions? Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. Good morning, Ed; good morning, Harry. Mahalo for coming in today. And Harry has been very helpful, and I've been back and forth with him a few times now. I do realize that we lost Don, and we stepped over to Harry as our Acting Director. And I do have to say the timing for moving that right turn lane from Shower onto the highway, the first week of school is probably one of the worst things that could have been done. So I appreciate your apology, but I also hope we've learned a lot from that. Because just one post we did, I got 5,000 views and almost 100 comments and people were pissed. And it's very understandable too, I mean people from Pahoa Drive to Shower has taken about two hours. That's a huge amount of time if you've got Page 8 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 your kids in the car, and you're trying to get to school and you haven't had your coffee. You know, as a dad, my god. So there's still a little bit of frustration there, I agree that we're trying to make it better looking at the overall timeline. Yes the removal of that lane should have been done last; it came first. I do want to ask why was there that disconnect between the project happening on the first week of school. Loosing Don Smith at the same time, like what was happening that caused that? Why was there that kind of, you know, miss communication, but even more so just really bad timing from Don to the removal of the lane to everything that happened, what happened? MR. SNIFFEN: I think that Don's leave or departure was a good timing. For Don, he knew he wanted a certain life that he couldn't have in Hawaii. So moving to Texas, was perfect for him. Because the timeframe that met his timeframe that met his need, so I really congratulate him for all he did here and moving on to something that is going to fit his lifestyle. That's first and foremost. Secondarily, that crossover was part of the reason things got dropped. When Don took such strong leadership of the district, and started maybe transitioning out there were things that were dropped. So definitely, I don't minimize any of the impacts that occurred to anybody during that timeframe. We absolutely apologize for it, we absolutely know how difficult it was for everybody. And we're making sure it doesn't happen again. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So as far as anything else happening that caused all of that to kind of pile up at the same time, right in the middle of August. MR. SNIFFEN: Yeah, I put a lot of pressure on all of our districts. During that timeframe we were restriping all the roads, if you look at your island now those areas that you're striping was really in poor condition, are in pretty good condition now. Especially on Highway 11, and Highway 19. If you look at the areas throughout the island where our landscaping was in bad condition—there's some areas where we didn't have the right line of sight in different areas because of the landscaping. That's all taken care of now. So all those things were put on Don and Harry to ensure that we take care of this island better than we did before. So there's a lot of pressure, I put on them to make sure we get things done. So things dropped. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I appreciate, you know, Harry stepping up in leadership, and I do appreciate you being here. I do want to ask, right now what's happening is you guys could have a one by one entry. One person from 130, and one person from Shower, one person from 130, one person from Shower as they're trying to merge from this problem challenge that we've created. So people are still very angry about that, because it's slowing down. Page 9 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 And then I'm going to go further now, and this is why I'm glad you're here because maybe you can help me. Now that we're bringing people more efficiently into Kea`au from Pahoa side, and Puna has a population of almost 60,000 people now. So 60,000 people, let's say 10,000 to 20,000 commute in the morning just to get into town. That maybe a light estimate. But now they're all bottlenecking in Kea`au. So we've taken something that was slow and we have increased the flow, and now we're having a bottleneck happening at the Kea`au Shipman area. And I'm in that traffic every day. Do you live here Ed? MR. SNIFFEN: No. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, so we drive that road every day, it is brutal. This morning was to me was 45 minutes. So but other people I know were talking hours, like they leave at 6:30 they get to town at 8:00. That's an hour and a half from Puna to Hilo, that's a long time. So I'd like to make sure we are thinking ahead now that we created better flow from 130 to Hilo. But have we thought about what happens at this bottleneck in the Kea`au area? MR. SNIFFEN: Absolutely. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, beautiful. MR. SNIFFEN: Every time we start looking at things, we look at things as a corridor. We never look at things as a spot. But again, as we talked about before, I could wait until we got all the money to take care of the whole corridor first before we make any improvements. I don't think that's in the best interest of the public. When we start looking at areas where we know we can improve now, to improve the quality of life now yeah, we take it. So in overall perspective, we start taking care of this bottleneck first and these one mile stretch, then we start taking care of the next. Because then we know the solutions are much more obtainable, if we can take those small bites out. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I agree. The project manager in my brain says, you get a, b, and c, if you connect c and b together but you never took care of b and a, and a to home. Home being Hilo, a being Kea`au and then b and c being out to Pahoa. We created beautiful between c to b, but back to Hilo we're having a problem. MR. SNIFFEN: And if you look at the fiduciary in your mind, $500,000 for this $8,000,000 for the other two. So which one do you do first? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So definitely some better planning, as far as how we're spending money from the state level to our county? MR. SNIFFEN: Better planning in what way? Page 10 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Picking our projects, and putting money into the right place. MR. SNIFFEN: So this is not the right place to you? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: This is a good spot. Don't get me wrong like I said, I appreciate what you guys are doing. But this is a larger problem that I think we've taken a bite out of MR. SNIFFEN: Absolutely. And this is the discussion point here. For the past five years, we've been telling our Legislature that we need another $120 million to move forward on capacity projects that we can't afford. We don't hear anybody else coming up to our Legislature, saying the same thing. Nobody else supports it. Now if we cannot get the support to get additional funding for the right projects and for the right sizes, we got to take the small bites out. So again, if you're looking at this as the wrong place, then there is nothing that's going to get done. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: No, not the wrong place. I think timing could have been better, that's what I'm saying. MR. SNIFFEN: Totally get that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. SNIFFEN: I think we've already established that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I'm going to suggest, public safety, yeah, that's our job. Public safety, when all these different outlets for every subdivision that we have in our community, there's no right turn lanes for a lot of them to enter the highway. That's scary, because you get people going as fast as 65 coming out of a semi -blind entrance way. I've seen accidents, I've dodged accidents on the highway. So right turn lanes out of every access point onto Highway 130, including all the way to where Steinbeck Highway enters into the highway more towards Hilo. I mean these are to me necessities. UH Hilo has a beautiful football length entry from the Ag farm that they have, onto the highway, I saw that going in. I thought that was a third lane, then I realize that's just for the UH people leaving UH Ag farms to get onto the highway. We as the constituents to drive that every day, we have nothing. And then the one we did have that was allowing traffic to flow easily, was removed without warning. So I think talking public safety, putting our money where our mouth is. MR. SNIFFEN: Perfect. So if we're looking at public safety, and we want to improve that immediately, we can make everything a right turn on red only. To Page 11 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 make sure that there's no conflict between the vehicles that are turning, and the vehicles that are on the highway. So if that's the improvement that we need right away, we'll take care of it right away. While we start looking at those extension lanes, because those extension lanes are expensive, especially if we got to start buying right of way to get them in there. When you start looking at Shower Drive and that extension lane you want in that area, you got to start taking right of way from that area. It's a year process through environmental process because we got to go through an EA (Environmental Assessment) anytime we acquire land. So if the improvements are necessary right now from a safety prospective, we'll do it. But it's going to be a right in right out, and it's going to be a right turn on red first before we start doing the extensions. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We don't have stoplights, we don't have roundabouts. I've been to the meetings, I was there with Don Smith we've talked about it, you know, cost, you know, efficiency. But we just don't have them yet, so in the time being I'm more of a common sense person. We don't have stoplights, we don't have beautiful nice clean access points on the highway. At least give the people a right turn lanes, or right of entry lanes from the respected areas of access. So they can get into the highway, without feeling like you're going to die when you pull out. MR. SNIFFEN: I totally agree, so we'll make sure we restrict those processes to ensure they cannot come out until it's clear. We'll do that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: But how can you restrict them, if there's no restrictions? MR. SNIFFEN: Well we can put in signals just in those right turn areas, to make sure people cannot come out until it's clear. We got to make sure that we're looking at the safety of our people, and we know it's going to take at least a year to get those extensions lanes if we got to buy property. So we'll take care of it. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I like the action part of you're saying. But I mean to say you're going to drop a stoplight in the middle that sounds beautiful, but without the funding and being in those meetings, and we're still discussing roundabout verses stoplight. MR. SNIFFEN: The end result is always, the end product we're pushing for is always a roundabout. It will always be that. But in reality we don't have the right away in that area to do it right away. So all of those processes are going to take time. In the interim, we're not going to wait for the large project to make all the improvements for us. There's a safety issue that's happening right now, we'll take care of it. Page 12 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry, it's just me and Ashley feel that huge amount of phone calls. Constituents angry, we have soothed that a little bit, and you and your efforts you've soothed it as well. But it's still there, we're still waiting to see how 130 really smooth's itself out. To get a feel for whether or not what we've done has created better flow or worse flow. Or where people are going to start redirecting, are they going to go cut through HPP (Hawaiian Paradise Park) like they have been? Are they going to find alternative routes, I mean people even talked about going up through the back roads through Hawaiian Acres to access the highway to come back in town through Kea`au side because it was faster. That means we haven't made it faster, we've slowed it down. So I know Joy San Buenaventura has been very helpful. Ashley and I will continue to fight for the needs of our constituents, if we need to. I'm hoping that this meeting kind of opens everyone's eyes as to what we need to do, to get better. I also need to ask Highway 130, am I right? Is it 132, or 130? CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Matt, if I could just ask, there's three other Council Members that would like to ask questions of Mr. Sniffen. If I could come back to you. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Inaudible. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: I know, but I've given you like 12 minutes, and usually we get five. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Have I been 12 minutes. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Yeah. Thank you for yielding. I appreciate you MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Thank you, Ed. Thank you, Harry. Yeah, I know, this has been a big subject for us. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Sniffen for being here. And as Ms. Kierkiewicz said, your time in incredibly valuable. And the fact that you're here to help the County of Hawaii speaks volumes. I do want to walk back to you're absolutely correct, we have become the stepchild when it comes to highway improvements especially down in Puna. So I cannot thank you enough, for continuing to champion the improvements, especially down in Puna, that has struggled for a very long time. I did have the one question about the Shipman intersection, because I think that actually speaks to what Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder is talking about. Which is these green light corridors, right, in engineering terms on how we get traffic moving in Page 13 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 a very systematic way. I know that was pushed out, I think the RFP is going out in October. MR. SNIFFEN: October, yes. MS. LEE LOY: Can you just summarize in what that project would look like, and what the level of expectation on improving traffic flow in that area. Especially the traffic coming out of Shipman Industrial, which is Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder's district. And we had a very horrible accident, little less than three weeks ago. And so that really has become a critical conversation, on how we improve that area. If you don't mind, Mr. Sniffen. MR. SNIFFEN: So we're pushing that improvement, because that area has a high speed conflict. I mean big time high speed conflict, in that area. Typically when we start looking at our mainlines and our side streets, in general you'll see a 10 to 1 volume on the mainline versus a side street. That's not the case in that area, especially during the peaks. So it's a difficult intersection to consider just prioritizing the mainline, which is why the signal is going in. So the signal is going to in to ensure that it improves efficiency along that route, but safety primarily. And efficiency through that route through all times, but primarily during the a.m., and p.m. peaks. So that's what the signal is going to be for. It's going to be a one-way green light, the other way is going to be timing restricted to ensure that we minimize or get rid of these high speed conflicts that occurred in the past. So I think I miss spoke, I think the project is going to start in October, right? I think the RFP (Request for Proposals) went out already, and it starts in October and I think it ends up early next year. So by the timeframe, we should have everything completed. MS. LEE LOY: And I also understand there's some design within that intersection with hard curbs, where we're keeping a lot of the merging traffic in those acceleration lanes. Share that a little bit, because I think that's a really exciting and innovative tool as engineers that you guys are doing to improve the safety of the exit of that area. MR. SNIFFEN: Absolutely. So I'd like to send a design to everyone, so you could see it. We took the time to ensure that we minimize the areas where we restricted. We don't want to stop anybody that doesn't have to be stopped, so they can keep moving forward quickly. But we wanted to make sure that we eliminated those conflict points on high speeds, to ensure that we don't have those t -bones or those types of accidents anymore. When we designed it, we made sure that we had the flow-throughs in as many areas as possible, to ensure operation to keep this moving as quick as possible. Page 14 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 So it's hard to describe the design itself, except to say that where we can keep everybody moving we did. Where we had to stop them to ensure that we maximize safety, we did. MS. LEE LOY: And then just for the record, because I know people stop, right? They come out of Shipman, and there's that small little holding area, that will no longer exist, right? MR. SNIFFEN: That's correct. MS. LEE LOY: Nobody going to be able to stop there anymore. MR. SNIFFEN: That's correct. MS. LEE LOY: And just as a reminder to my fellow colleagues, this initiative was also championed by Tina Clothier with our project Vision Zero. So we have a lot of community partners who are helping not only accelerate the dollars at the state level, but at the county level. But collectively looking at these types of intersections that need the most attention. MR. SNIFFEN: Exactly. MS. LEE LOY: And I just want to walls back to one other thing, regarding messaging. And thank you so much for really just owning the shortcoming, and recognizing how to do that better. I do want to offer, I know you have Go Akamai, right? Is there ways that we could get it in like a social media platform, so that we can push it out we have a lot of bandwidth? MR. SNIFFEN: Certainly. MS. LEE LOY: Is there a way your PIO (Public Information Officer) could not only work with Denise over here who I think is just phenomenal, to help message us in a way where we can just capture it and push it out on our own social sites. Is that something? MR. SNIFFEN: Absolutely. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Thank you, again, Mr. Sniffen MR. SNIFFEN: Thank you. MS. LEE LOY: Really. I yield. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Mr. Richards. Page 15 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Thanks Ed, for being here really appreciate it. And Harry look forward to meeting you, and talk story little bit. The contraflow, I think was a great concept bringing forth to this island. Again, more utilization of the black top that we have available to us right now, and I'm not going to argue any of the concerns put forth by my Council Members because they're all the same. And do fully appreciate the fact that traffic is a science, or almost an art sometimes understanding the flows and the ebb and flows. As far as the actual study of that, and the increase in flow. And as you know I'm west side, so I'll get to that in a second here. The flows from the state perspective as far as the total cars per hour during peak times, I'm sure they've increased substantially in the last 10 years. Do you have a number off the top of your head? And I realize that's not something maybe prepared to answer. MR. SNIFFEN: Well just in the Puna area, if we're looking at the volumes in that area. We're at about 25,000 to 30,000 vehicles per day right now, 10 years ago it's 15,000 so it doubled during that time. Throughout the state, I can say it's about third to a double on every community that we're working with. In some areas, it's the worst of all worlds. At least for Puna, there was development in the area that added to the growth. For Leeward Coast on Oahu, there was no appreciable development, but there was a doubling in the volumes of their roadways. Because people were moving back home, living with their parents those types of things. And as everyone knows funding or improvements really follows development. So for them we've been trying to adjust as well, to see what we can do within the blacktop we own right now. To see how we can be more efficient things, which is why we started the first contraflow there in Nanakuli. We're very well there, so we expanded to different other areas, which is why we're looking at Pahoa now because we know there's an issue there. So that's kind of what we're seeing statewide MR. RICHARDS: Okay. So to follow that, and again, we're talking bottlenecks in all of our communities. My bottleneck is Waimea, and coming through there. And we talked about the Kawaihae junctions, that's problematic. I realize there's probably a bigger plan coming forward to handle things, and we're talking about the intersections as well and the flow. And what the best way to handle those are. I'll get with you offline, so we can have a better discussion. I'd like you to come back, and talk story with a greater Master Plan about that at some point, Ed if I could ask that. But I want to echo something that Council Woman Lee Loy just said, about the social media platform. That has been working well for me on the other side, for either if we have traffic issues through the police or water issues things like that. And I want to reemphasize that if you can give us some sort of communication that we can also help you push out, that seems to settle down Page 16 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 people when they have some information. That's one of the things I think government really need to do is communicate better with the constituents. And if you can help us out, I'd really appreciate that. MR. SNIFFEN: Absolutely, will do. For us we're trying to get better at it. DOT was never set up as a communications group, they're just an engineering company, right. Dump out projects. In the past we heard discussions from people 15 years ago who said, "You pretty much just showed up outside my backyard with a bulldozer and started ripping everything up." And we're trying to get away from that, so I appreciate all the help. MR. RICHARDS: No, and we appreciate it too. Government hasn't been set up as a communicator very well. So anyway, with that Chair, I yield. Thanks. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Ms. Eoff. MS. EOFF: Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you again, for being here. I wanted to go back to something you mentioned earlier, when you were speaking with Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder about funding for capacity. And you spoke of the legislature, and can we help. Because I think that's an important topic, and I'm not sure how we can help. But what I understand is that right now, priority projects on the STIP (State Transportation Improvement Program) are for road improvements of existing roads, bridge repairs, etcetera, and not really prioritizing capacity building. And how do we change that? Because I think it's the crux of the issue right now. MR. SNIFFEN: Yeah, so let me go back 2015. During that 2015 timeframe we were coordinating with the Federal Government, who pretty much said, we funded your system. For the past 60 years we gave you a bunch of money to build up your system, and you kept using that money to build up your system. But you didn't maintain what you had, so now your system is in very poor shape and this is talking nationally to all the directors of our state DOT's. And they pretty much said in their Map 21, and then in FAST (Federal America's Surface Transportation Act), the legislation that funds us, if you do not hit this certain level of maintenance on your system, we'll start cutting back 30 percent of your funds. I mean just off the top. So we get about $185 million every year, 30 percent of that goes away real quick, right. We started refocusing the program to ensure that we had sufficient funding, to take care of the level of maintenance of the system first. And we let our Legislature know that in reality what we had to do, was repurpose the CIP funds. The funds that we would use to build capacity to ensure that we give them the level of maintenance that Federal Highways expect, and our constituents expect as well. During that timeframe we said, if there's not additional funding we must prioritize these things first. Safety system preservation first. Congestion comes Page 17 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 next, we can look at those smaller operations improvements that we can do to start moving people a little bit quicker. Capacity comes after we start looking at multi -modal. So really capacity, is the last thing we look at funding. When we talked to our Legislature, we gave a package of fee adjustments that could get us to that $100 million mark. And of course it's a raise in the gas tax, increase in registration fees, and it's an increase in weight tax. Fully understanding that everybody pays about $400.00 every year to re -register they vehicle with registration fee and weight taxes. Fully understanding that everybody pays about $800.00 a year for gas, depending on what kind of mileage you get. Everybody's living on hard times, nobody wants that increases. But in general we got to choose now. We brought up the conversation, because if we cannot get the increases that we need to fund capacity, wanted everybody to understand why I'm not going to build it. So that's the reason that it was prioritized the way it was. Our Legislature, and rightfully so, is prioritizing quality of life. They want to make sure they don't increase fees to their constituents, to our constituents, unless you absolutely have too. And so that's where were kind of stuck right now. But what the Legislature did do though in this past session is give us a bill that gives us an additional $2.00 surcharge on rental cars. Initially they tried to limit it just to non-residents, but it was found to be unconstitutional so they amended it to make it for everybody. So that $2.00 additional surcharge brings in about another $32 million a year, which is not small money. But not significant, when you start looking at a capacity project costing upwards of $100 million. What it does though is, in each county it brings in a certain amount of money. I think for Oahu it's about $10 million, I think for Maui it's $10.5 million, for Big Island it's about $6.5 million or $6 million around there. And that's a small amount of money if we're looking at a capacity project. But if I bonded, I can get about $18 to $20 million per million. So that should get me someplace around $100 million or so that we start looking at real capacity projects going forward. Definitely from our perspective when we start looking at the priorities throughout this island, it's in the Puna District, that Highway 130 area, and potentially the east side connection to Saddle Road. Those are the two areas that I would look at as high priorities. We start looking at readiness, the west side extension on Saddle Road is ready. So we got to start looking at prioritizing where that additional funding would go to, because it's really only going to be good $100 million for the next 20 years. For us, we want to deliver those monies quickly to the public, partially because once we implement the public gets to enjoy the improvements. But secondary, I want to make sure that our Legislature knows that we're good for it. If they give Page 18 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 us another $100 million we'll take care of it. We'll build it out, we'll spend the money, and we'll make sure we're ready for the next $100 million they want to give us. So that's kind of where we are right now. To answer your question on what can happen. There's no one at the Legislature that's advocating on behalf of increasing the fees or increasing the revenue or improving the implementation or increasing the capacity projects we can do. We have only contractors, engineers, and architect talking about it. But maybe that's a little self-serving, from the Legislature's perspective. So if the constituency comes out and says, this is what we expect, then maybe I think we have a better shot at getting these increases. MS. EOFF: Okay, thank you, MR. SNIFFEN: Thank you. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, Ms. Eof£ Chair Chung, do you want to weigh in a little? Because he said some magical words earlier. Bonding was one of them, and what came to mind is what you always say about really leveraging our GE (General Excise Tax Fund), so just putting it out there if you want to weigh in on the conversation. MR. CHUNG: I don't have anything specific to say, but I really did want to thank Ed, and Harry for being here, you know, you came all the way from Honolulu. And you know, I'm noticing, you know, maybe I'm reading a bit too much into it, but you know, just based on the comments of Ms. Eoff and Mr. Richards who are really far removed from the situation. You know, I think their kind of, you know, thinking about projects in their districts, right. It's something that, you know, I was kind of thinking about myself. So you know, I don't really have anything specific to say. I just wanted to thank you guys. But my brain is working on—whatever you guys are saying today, it's kind of working on other things that, you know, hopefully come to fruition. Anyway that's all I've got to say, thank you. MR. SNIFFEN: Thank you. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thanks, Chair. Just a quick follow up on that, something that Ed just said. Going forward, and I think we were—described or discussed by Donald Smith that when a concern came that they were maintaining a relatively new road, as supposed to fixing an older road. And the point was that the long term, if you look at the long term maintenance cost overall will be less if we maintain it better sooner. And that makes a lot of sense. It doesn't feel good, but it makes a lot of sense. Page 19 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 Coming back to the other thing that you mentioned Ed, and maybe this is something we can advocate and I'm looking at our governmental affairs. I know that the Feds have money that become available, when other states are not able to use them. The way we can capitalize on that is if we have shovel -ready projects to go. And so Ed, my question to you and if you need to get back to us, how do we advocate for the planning money through the state for the state roads? And I think we have something like 700 miles, or 600 miles of state highways on this island. We have like 65 percent of the state highway, in the state is on this island. How to we advocate to make projects shovel ready for you, so when that money maybe come available that we can grab it and run. I think that's something we all in our districts, if we have a way we can advocate for you. You tell us what you want to get done, and we try and advocate for that planning money so that it's ready to go off the shelf. I think that be some homework we'd like to do for you. Thanks Chair, I yield. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Chair, go ahead. MR. CHUNG: Yeah, and you know, just following up on what Mr. Richards said. You know, I think one of the themes that we've been trying to develop during the course of our Puna recovery, you know, in talking to the Administration, is utilize resources, you know, utilize the people on this body, we all have unique skill sets. And I guess the same invitation can be made to you. You know, you talked about trying to get funding from the Legislature. And I got to say, we have some real, real solid individuals on this board who are able to lobby well. I mean, because we've been focusing on our stuff, right? But, you know, this would be a great opportunity for them to partner with the state, and augment whatever efforts that you may have. So you know, please feel free to engage any or all members of this body, you'll be pleasantly surprised I think. We cannot guarantee we can deliver, because that's an awful lot of money. But every resource that you can utilize, should be looked at. MR. SNIFFEN: Really appreciate that Chair. Thank you. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: I know you have to go. Any other questions? Okay, one more question. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Ed, sorry for earlier, just this is a big kind of issue for Puna, and we dealt with it. Me and Ashley did a lot of outreach to try and help DOT kind of get to the public, and let the public know and give them an update on what's happening. So I do appreciate you being here. Some thoughts. Panaewa stretch coming into Hilo, possible contraflow program there, to help us get into Hilo quicker and faster. Because it would be much appreciated by the what, 20,000 people coming into Hilo in the morning. Right of Page 20 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 ways, anywhere we have an entrance from a subdivision, or a community or a homeowners lot onto the highway, right of way entrance. Highway 130 towards Kalapana is getting really bad. We've had a lot of movement, we had a lot of road kind of breakdowns because we just have more traffic, a lot of activity in and out of that area. So right after the stoplight going towards Kalapana on 130, the highway is really bad. And I reached out to Harry about this as well. Harry, are you from Honolulu or you're from here? You from here, yeah. Okay, so we did the highway clean up together, right? Okay, thank you. So he's been wonderful, he's been answering my emails. But just to put it into your head, so you're kind of aware and you can work together. And then I'm going to always ask for kind of efficiency, and I don't want to spend hundreds of million dollars. I'm looking for quickies, fixies that make the overall community's ability to commute and use the highway easier and better. That's all I'm shooting for, that's all we want. Puna's not notorious in needing glamorous, glitzy fixes, we just want to get in and out of town and get back to our homes in a nice efficient way. So anything you can do to help us do that, I appreciate it. Thank you for your time, and I do look forward to working with you. I'm sorry, just—yeah. MR. SNIFFEN: Thanks. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Ed. Thank you, Harry. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you so much for being here. I don't know how you do your job, not going to tell you how to do your job. You are good at what you do. I trust in your decisions, Ed, and in your leadership. I think we are in really good hands with you at the helm. I think you were just trying to make best of the situation, knowing that we have limited funds. Trying to stretch every single one of those public dollars, so that we can increase public safety. And do what we need to do, to improve quality of life for residents. So not going to argue that. Here to support you, and I think you know how we can work better together as county and state. You're going to stay plugged in with us, we're going to share with you what we're hearing from the community. And I know that you're going to take that into serious consideration, because you're going to continue to study the improvements that you've made to Puna as you do with all projects and figure out how can we make things better? So I just want to thank you again, for your time and we look forward to working with you and Harry and the rest of your team. MR. SNIFFEN: Thank you very much, Chair. Page 21 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you. Okay, we have a motion on the floor to close file on Communication 426. All in favor. Dlease sav "ave." Vote on Comm. 426: The motion to close file on Comm. 426 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Motion carries. Thank you, have a great day. Mr. Clerk, we're going back to the top, Communication 374 please. Comm. 374: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY JANICE IKEDA FROM VIBRANT HAWAII ISLAND REGARDING WORK BY THE COMMUNITY TO IMPROVE ECONOMIC VITALITY From Council Member Sue L. K. Lee Loy, dated July 17, 2019. Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 426. Seconded by Ms. David. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: I think we have a presentation from the Vibrant Hawaii team. Do you have a PowerPoint or is this just, okay, talk story, great. So I'm going to actually turn it over to Council Member Lee Loy to lead the discussion on this. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you for being here today. There's been a lot of outreach related to the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Restrained Employed) report, and dovetailing a lot of the conversation that Vibrant Hawaii was having in these small group speak out sessions. And so I saw it as a huge opportunity now to bring in a larger audience, where you guys could actually take some of the information and scoping, and conversations that you had throughout our entire island and kind of share it with the county. It's my hope that this conversation will help this body accelerate resources in certain areas. And you know, Janice, you've done this for a few months now, so I don't want to steal your thunder, please just take it away. (Note: At this time, Vibrant Hawaii Island Janice Ikeda, and Carole Ignacio came forward to address the members of the Committee.) Page 22 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 MS. IKEDA: Mahalo nui for the opportunity to come and share. I'm actually going to defer to Carole, who was there from day one to give you a little bit of background on how this all got started. MS. IGNACIO: So I'm the before, and she's the after. And you know, the before is white and the after is black. So anyway, yeah, you're going to hear me speak very little, because I'm just going to give you the before and with what we hope you folks will accomplish. But maybe like a year and half ago, most of you know Charlene Iboshi, yeah? And she said, "Carole" you know, how she talk yeah. "Carole" you know, we need to figure out, you know, now that blue zones, and we moving to phase two how are we going to sustain and da, da, da, that was the conversation. And then she said, "I'm going to introduce you to Rachel Solemos, and maybe we can get some technical support." Because too many people doing the same thing and spending too much money, and maybe not being as effective as we can be as a community. So that was a context. So the three of us met and we started talking and talking, and we called ourselves, well that was Rachel the SAM group, Small and Mighty group. Because there was three of us. And eventually where we are now, we are the BAM. We are the Big and Mighty, thanks to Janice and the work that she's doing. I think one of the impacts of that little conversations I had, was we started really looking at really in-depth issues. We looked at all the different kinds of things that are happening in our community, so much programs that you folks are generously fund and support. And yet the impact, isn't quite where we need it to be as a community. So Vibrant Hawaii became our new name, and we are so grateful that Janice has said yes to taking us from the before to the present and where we're going to the future, so. MS. IKEDA: Aww, mahalo nui. Mahalo, Carole. When I came on board, we spent actually quite a bit of time. I just want to take you into the very thoughtful process that brought us to where we are, because along the way we continued to challenge assumptions and even assumptions within our small and mighty group. And so when we first looked at the ALICE report, and also started discussing the possibility of bringing Vibrant Hawaii forward to our community, we very much wanted to take the time to listen to the community to find out one, is somebody already doing this work; two, is this just going to be one initiative for our community, because we definitely have no shortage of initiatives or non-profit organizations on our island; and three, is it the right time and is there a real will in our community, to come together and do this in a different way. So we spent several months going out meeting with stakeholders individually across the island. And anytime I use the word stakeholders, it's within this multi -sector framework, and so there's government in education, faith community and social Page 23 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 services, business and philanthropy, and then community folks who are living within poverty and ALICE that we were meeting with. And in those conversations that went through the course of several months in the beginning of this year, we learned a lot about inherit assumptions that we have. Even the people who want to do good, and want to make change, were coming to this with certain assumptions and we had some of those challenged. But we also found out is that yes, we were right, there are a lot of people doing a lot of really, really great work. A lot of them are focused on the indicators of poverty, so we have groups that are coming together around homelessness, we have groups that are coming together around education disparities, and health concerns. What we did not see was any group across our island, or even at the state level that was intentionally coming together with that multi -sector stakeholder representation and specifically to address poverty at its root level. Rather than indicators and outcome of poverty. And so at that point our group reconvened and said, despite millions of dollars, despite decades of hard work by very, very smart and talented people, ALICE is continuing to rise on our island. From 2014-2016 we saw 13 percent increase. And so despite all these efforts it's continuing to go up and it's continuing to get worse. And so that's when we really dug our heels in and said, let's get this moving. One of the first things that we did, again, out of respect to the many, many years of work and the brilliance of our communities is we said, rather than bringing everyone to our together to come to us, we are going to go out. We are going to recognize the work that people have been doing, and we're going to bring communities together to ask them what does a vibrant community look like to you? And so we did that in June, and in July we had three questions. What does a vibrant community look like to you? We asked folks, what does it look like right now? How does your vision align to your current situation? And the third question we asked is, how do you identify yourself in being useful, in bringing your vision to reality? And that last question is really based on our belief that everyone has the capacity to contribute in some way. We've learned through conversations, that wealth is a combination of your cash and financial assets or capitol, your social capitol and your human capitol, and for us to devalue any one of those and hold anyone up higher than the others is not our community's definition of wealth or poverty. That it's all together. And so some of the things that came out from those community convening's again, we were in East Hawaii, Puna, North Hawaii, West Hawaii, and in Ka`u. There were a lot of similar theme's that emerged. Opportunities of where we can take action around housing, you know, it's the same. Housing, economy, mobility and transportation, health, education, and financial empowerment. What stood out to me was a deeper narrative from our community around ideas around social Page 24 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 capitol, ideas around how we want to pursue everything that we move forward to pursue. And some of these main themes were around an ahupua`a lifestyle and management of resources, faith and fellowship emerged as a strong theme; living aloha, ohana, belonging. I just want to share a quote that someone shared with me yesterday to give you a really good picture of this word belonging. It said "Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice, and belonging is having that voice be heard." So this idea of belonging, malama `aina an access. And folks want access to everything, access to jobs, resources, health care, equal access to justice, economic access, access to opportunity, transportation, support, quality education, access to safe and affordable housing, there's this prevalent theme of access. And so following those convening that again wrapped up in early July, we've been bringing folks together around the areas that they identified as being useful. And we've been having follow up conversations, because what we came to see is that people are very passionate, and we have the opportunity to be a little bit more informed about how to move together collectively. And part of that is having common language, so when folks are talking about tiny homes we understand what that word means in a number of different context. And the process to move ideas like that forward. And so that's the work that we're doing now, bringing folks together around topics of housing, health, education, financial empowerment, mobility, and economy. What we're doing within the next few weeks is, bringing our island together. We have space for 200 stakeholders. Again, the reservation or tickets are divided up equally across sectors. So we will aim to have that equal representation. We're coming together looking at what our community said, looking at the follow-up questions. A lot of it was who's already doing what, in what areas and how do we support that. And the bigger thing that I wanted to share was in addition to the activities that initiatives like Vibrant Hawaii normally take is focusing on the top three explicit conditions for change. And so typically movements or initiatives go in and focus actions around policy, around practice, and around resource flows. We really want to focus in addition to those things, put a lot of effort around mental models. Which is the bottom of those six conditions of change, and I think you guys all got this, right. Okay, so I'm going to read this graphic is, I provided this citation the water of systems change. And I want to read why we're going to put so much effort into the mental models, challenging assumptions, having conversations with people. It says "Consider for example the Affordable Care Act (ACA), enacted during President Obama's administration. The ACA is one of the largest shifts in policy, and flow of resources this country has ever seen. ACA created huge impacts at Page 25 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 the first level of system change. At the second level of change, the ACA helped catalyze stronger relationships between community and health providers, as more attention is being paid to social and structure determinants of health. ACA has not yet significantly changed the relationships among key players, such as providers, insurance, pharmaceutical companies, and patients. Nor has the ACA been successful in shifting power from cooperate lobbyist, political parties, and congressional legislatures to consumer and patient advocates. Most fundamentally of all, ACA supporters did not successfully instill a new public narrative about why America's uninsured deserve access to health care, or the ways in which broader health care coverage strengthen the global competitiveness to the U. S. to benefit all citizens. "Without shifting the underlying mental models of the critical mass of lawmakers, cooperate leaders, and the general public, the ACA achievements and potential remain at risk." And so again, learning from other folks who have done incredible work, we know that in order to have this lasting change, we also know that it's going to have to be generational shifts that are happening. Part of the big work that we need to do is to start restructure, reshape, rewrite our narrative, and to challenge assumptions, and rewrite these mental models. MS. IGNACIO: One of the things we did do to try to be true to ourselves with this model was, when we started off we didn't go the typical route, "Let's come to the County Council and ask for money," or whatever. Two things, one, we said we got to figure out if this model of thinking of really addressing poverty is it realistic? And I was the top I said, you know, I'm the oldest in this group, I don't want us to be spinning our wheels for the next 20 years if this can work. And so Rachel had gone to some kind of convening, I don't know in Canada or some place. And she said, that the Canadians had made really good progress in changing the narrative with poverty. In many communities, I mean like a lot of digits down. And Tamarack Institute was really key to that, so we said okay, let's learn from the best. And we contacted them, and we had so many webinars and all this kinds of stuff And Kamehameha Schools, thanks to Alapaki who is part of this, and HCC (Hawai`i Community College) they were able to come up with some money, not plenty for us to engage contractually with Tamarack Institute. Which we are still in and with, and who has been guiding us through this process. So one, what we're sharing with you today isn't new, isn't something that we just kind of thought about. Its evidence based, and we encourage you to go on Tamarack Institute's website. You can see and for the first time they moved across the border and went to Iowa. And they're beginning to see some real results there as well. So I think that was really important. You know, we try to walls the talk. And of course with the Hawaii Community Foundation as part of our band, group, they are investing in this kind of process as well. So that's important. Page 26 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 I think the last message that I wanted to give—well two. One is how many of you read about and you hear it every day, I hear it on the radio 50 times a day. Buy local, yeah, buy local. I was looking at the amount of money that Department of Ag puts out with that program, which is a good one; millions of dollars. And yet the majority of us here, are not buying local, yeah. They're not buying local. They are one of the largest employers with our prison system, and our school system. And most of their products are not local that they buy, but of course Tim Richards is going to change that with Ag, right? But you know, it's like we want to change the paradigm of keep talking about things, putting such an amount of money and human resources into stuff And we see Vibrant Hawaii at least getting to some real root causes and not creating a new program, we not going to become a 501(c)(3), you know, that kind of stuff It's like Janice said, we're pulling all—and I think Aaron, Council Chair Aaron earlier. You know, there's so much manao, not only in this Council but manao in our communities, and we're finding that, you know. So I hope you can send it to them, because it had really an impact on me personally. You know, we've been working collaboratively, and it's been a word that's been fairly new for me 15 years, yeah, it's new. Collective impact is what we're doing. And what Janice shared with us, and it's a beautiful, beautiful model, there's these people all in the same canoe, yeah, and that's kind of what we say, let's all get in the same canoe and then we going to go someplace. That's collaboration. What we doing is collective impact. We don't have to all get in the same canoe, but we want all of the canoes going in the same direction. And one canoe might be big, one canoe might be small, one canoe might be—you know. But if we can agree collectively, that we want a vibrant Hawaii Island. That all of our canoes are going to be heading in the same direction. And that's the commitment we're making with BAM and Vibrant Hawaii. So you're not going to see us, you know, with the same typical model. And we're going to ask all of you in your own canoe, to help us paddle together. We're hoping to get 100 percent support from you. If you have contingency funds that's fine, if you don't that's okay, too. But seriously we want to be able to say, that our county supports, you know, collective impact in trying to change our narrative and not keep doing the same thing over, and over and expecting a different result. So that's all I have to say from the before, and what hoping that we going to do after. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, ladies. You know, I attended the Hilo one, and just really got very excited. Because it provided me a vision on what my role as a policy maker would be in this larger collective. And I really began to think on, you know, what does Hawaii Island want to vibe, right? You know, dovetailing into Vibrant Hawaii using our skills here, and showing up and meeting everyone where they're at and collectively moving, you know, through change. Page 27 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 I look forward to the 27�h, I've already grabbed my ticket. But I absolutely agree with the idea of speaking around common language, or using the same vernacular. Chair Chung often tells us, we have to look at resource utilization. You know, how we from the county can partner with the private sector, bring in the state and federal government, and move very succinctly, to create actionable change. So thank you, ladies. I'm getting very excited on what this next year would look like for us in 2020, with a lot of this data that's being pushed up from community. I see it as a home rule document, and how we really kind of get our arms around what we want Hawaii Island to look like. So thank you, I yield. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. And thank you for coming forward with this, because this is something that excites me a lot for a lot of different reasons. First with Carole, she's kind of like the E. F. Hutton of Hamakua when she speaks everybody listens, you know. She changes her hair, I mean she's putting on a new style. MS. IGNACIO: I have two new knees, watch out. MR. RICHARDS: Oh, okay. But the point is well taken, Carole, what we're talking about here. And when we look through this, it bothers me greatly about the poverty. In spite of efforts, it continues to increase. And we're not going to be able to anything unless we have the economy that drives in, and Carole you're alluded to that because I believe agriculture can be part of that economy. I believe being more food self-reliant, is part of that economy that is going to, sort of the rising tide, raises it all ships. You said you learned a lot from Tamarack, and I'm curious, can you give us just a blush of what was stated. I'm interested, you know, it's one thing not knowing you're having a problem, and it gets worse. To me it's worse to recognizing we have a problem, and it's still getting it. So is there an inkling there, because part of our job here on the Council is to try and turn some of that. So can you give us an indication just a little bit what was stated there. I know it has to revolve around the economy in part. Just a few words, please. MS. IKEDA: So one of the things that was shown to be effective and I'm going to use Iowa as an example. Through data and through shared data, they began to track number of immigrants moving into Central Iowa. And they focused for several years a significant amount of outreach, and resources and education to those folks. What they saw initially wasn't a reduction in poverty, but they saw that their trajectory stopped moving upward. And after five years they experienced their first two percent reduction in poverty, which equated to I believe a total of 11,000 folks in Central Iowa. And that was through one Page 28 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 initiative. Other cities in Canada focused on initiatives with their business sector primarily. Because we are very much about the collective voice and the collective will, we are not making a decision yet what are focus on initiative is going to be. I think the beginning of that is going to happen on the 27�h. We'll be able present what communities across our island said, and what the follow-up meetings have been. And then have much more conversation on the 27�h, the summary of all those conversations then goes to our strategy committee. Which have representatives from the different sectors across the island, to go through a lot of conversations throughout the course of a year before we put together our plan. MS. IGNACIO: I think, Councilman Richards, the key thing that I got out of it from day one with Tamarack was up—and I've been part of that, part of silos, yeah. Whether it's the County Council, whether it's not for profit, or homeless we're part of silos. And even though the intention is to talk story and to connect, because we're in our, you know, busy lives we don't. And the only way Tamarack taught us that we're going to be effective in changing this paradigm is we need to be inclusive. And it's hard for a not for profit to be, you know, it's like it has to be broader, you know. And so we've been spending a lot of time connecting with businesses, which for the most part it doesn't happen, you know, it's kind of like it's not for the profit and the business, you know, that sort of thing. And also listening to the people that are living it, you know, their lived experience. And letting the business people, who maybe have their own ideas about why people are poor or why, you know. And having them at the same table, and listening to each other has been impactful for the observer as well as—the Hilo one we had such a cross section of business people. I mean like the biggies, the big boys, you know, and big girls too. And you know, we're kind of like the buzzing group, going around and listening. And you saw a visible shift right there, when they heard someone tell their story, you know. And the next round of talk stories at the gatherings was like you saw your body language it wasn't like, you know, the judgement of why, there was a meeting of the minds. Was it a perfect—was the beginning. And I think, that Councilman Richards, is going to be the key, having all of the stakeholders around the table, and creating the opportunity to do that, without saying your canoe is better, or your canoe don't go as fast, or you don't paddle as well. But say, you know, you have your canoe and whatever your assets and your gifts are in your canoe, we're going to sail this bugga together, you know. And I get chicken skin when I think about it, because for the first time I feeling like some entity is looking at that. Without any bias or wanted it for a certain reason. But simply as pure, because we love this place and we want to make it work, and I know we can make it work. Page 29 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 And I really want to say, before I meet my maker someday, maybe another 40 years, but anyway. I don't know if that answers your question, so I think it's a diversity and an inclusion. And people not saying well, you know, because the Kahua Ranch is big and, you know, I live in, you know, Keaukaha, we don't have something in common. We do. And that's humanity, and how can I make you the best in that process. I know I'm kind of laulau with that, but I know it can happen. MR. RICHARDS: No, Carole, you're spot on and you just hit it out of the ballpark. Two things that you said, silos, government is famous in doing everything in silos. So we never talk story, so we don't bridge the problems. So that's the first thing, and I almost started to laugh when you said silos. And then other thing you said is being inclusive. We spend so much time trying to be exclusive, and that silos create that. That to be inclusive so you get everybody to the table to have that conversation. So that's some of my homework to work on the Council here. Chairman I yield. Thank you very much, Carole, and appreciate it, aloha. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Good morning, ladies. I was not sure what to expect from your first meeting for Vibrant Hawaii. And being there and seeing other members of the community, Sue, different business owners, entertainers, just everybody. You had everyone at the table, which what we all keep saying, let's get everybody to the table, but you actually did it. And to be a part of that and to understand that not only you're asking us to communicate, but you were asking us to go one step further and create a plan of action. So we didn't leave the table just talking, but with some kind of a plan. And that we could move forward and have goals, which you just took it and wrapped it on to one nice piece. I was very happy to be there, and very happy to be a part of that. Thank you for inviting us to be part of that. I am really looking forward to what happens September 27�h, and I know both of you have been just very strong leaders in different aspects, but together you're kind of athat's a nice power combo to see. So I really look forward to where we go, and what changes this brings about. Even if it's one, one thing that we accomplish, then you change something and then you can, you know, go forward. Hopefully not anytime soon. And be happy that you choose something, and Janice thank you for doing this. MS. IKEDA: I did want to add one more thing, that I think sets Vibrant Hawaii apart from what we've done many times. We're not about creating a new project or a new initiative or something to add on to the overload and overwork that folks in the public sector, and in the non-profit, and in the faith community already have. What we're looking to do is identify what they refer to in the Tamarack Page 30 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 model as mutually reinforcing activities. And so taking what you're already doing, and what you're already excellent at and finding opportunities where that can be mutually reinforcing to what some else is already doing, and what they're already excellent at. And one small example of that is, by having a conversation with a credit union that does financial empowerment. Helping them to promote their free service to small business owners, who are looking at ways of how they can support their employees to make their dollar stretch farther. So that they can have a different kind of a lifestyle. And so having met with a business owner and hearing him say, you know, I'd be more than happy to support my employees but I just can't do it by raising their wages right now, I just can't. But I want to support my employees. And me being able to say, well I know somebody who can come into your work place. Would you be willing to allow your employees to have a one hour workshop with this credit union and learn about budgeting? And he was like definitely, and being able to connect them in that way. That's a small example of mutually reinforcing activities that can start to make a difference. And so that's really where we're heading with this, it's not about doing something new or creating a new thing. It's just so many people are doing good work already, and just need to connect. MS. IGNACIO: In line with that, with a credit union and, you know, business owners not necessarily being able to raise wages and that kind of stuff. One of the credit unions, the thing that they—you know, we were looking at it from Blue Zone's perspective the health initiatives. And this credit union without being able to raise wages but also realizing that their employees were not getting annual exams and check physical exams because they had to take a day off, yeah. Either vacation day or whatever. So this one particular credit union gives one day, paid day, for every employee to go and get an annual physical. They have seen a major drop in their health care cost, and had boosted the moral of their employees. So it's those kinds of conversations that—and it's a talking story, yeah really. I mean this didn't cost anybody any money, but it was the talking story and breaking down that silence. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Any other comments or questions for our presenters? Ms. Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Just a quick question. Could you repeat that quote that you mentioned earlier. I just would love to write it down, or if you want to send it to me. I thought that was really powerful and impactful. MS. IKEDA: Diversity is having a seat at the table, that one? MS. VILLEGAS: Yes. Page 31 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 MS. IKEDA: Inclusion is having a voice, and belonging is having that voice be heard. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you, appreciate that. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Ladies, I remember having a conversation with Chancellor Solemsaas about a year ago about Vibrant and then she told me about Tamarack Institute, so I Googled it and I got so excited. And I am so impressed by all of your incredible work over the last year to pull all of this together. I mean it really is mind blowing. And what I love most about this framework is that, the end user, the community, has a seat at the table. Often times so many decisions are made and we see them, we see them here at this Council. We see policy being crafted without community input, and that's very dangerous because they have to live with the consequences of those decisions. So in this model you are viewing community, government, private sector, nonprofit, all as partners because we all have to live in this community together. I'm honored to be representing the Council as part of strategic committee, so thank you for that. I will be contributing contingency funds, because I think we're just at a pivot point in our history, right. We've got to throw out the old playbook that got us here, and start looking at a new model of collective action, right. We all are useful, and have something to contribute big or small. But we all need that in order to progress forward. So very excited about our convening on the 27th, are there still spots available? I know it's limited. MS. IKEDA: There are, so please register we would love to have everyone there. MS. IGNACIO: And it's free. MS. IKEDA: It is free. They're going to feed us, we get lunch. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: It's going to be a good conversation about how we can work better together. And you know, the last point that I want to drive home is, when we envision that thriving community, right, that looks different for everyone. But it's bright, and people have the tools and resources and space to pursue their passion. Because they can, and they're not forced to do things because they have to in order to make ends meet. So that's very important, and I think this is going to be something great for Puna, which is sadly 78 percent ALICE highest in the state. So thank you again, for all your hard work, and we'll see you on the 27�h. MS. IKEDA: Mahalo nui a kakou. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: There is a motion on the floor to close file on Communication 374, all in favor please say "aye." Page 32 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 Vote on Comm. 374: The motion to close file on Comm. 374 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, ladies. Mr. Clerk, last item on the agenda please. Comm. 428: REQUESTS TO PROVIDE AN UPDATE ON THE AUGUST 26, 2019, MEETING OF THE HAWAII STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND PROVIDE DETAILS ON THE TIMEFRAME AND PROCESS FOR DEVELOPING THE 2020 STATE LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE From Council Member Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, dated August 26, 2019. Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 428. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. The HSAC Executive Committee met on August 26, and so formal minutes are coming once they are approved by the Executive Committee. But I just want to provide an overview of the discussion that did take place, in case there was anything that this body wanted to further research, because the whole point of HSAC is to share information and collaborate and figure out how we as counties can tackle shared challenges. Just so everyone is clear, Maui County is finalizing the operating budget for HSAC. They should have a final copy prepared for all of the Council's at the next meeting, which is still being determined for September. Oahu is working on a number of projects. They have Bill 40, which is a ban on single use plastics, and that's moving forward to first reading. Bill 37, which might be interesting for everyone if you want to look this up. It's regarding our public labor agreements. If non -unions bid on projects over a $1,000,000 they must sign an agreement to use union standards, practices, wages, and employees pay dues. I know that the general contractors association has reached out with some concerns, but think follow the media and maybe even look on Honolulu County's website for more details about this specific bill. They're also convening special meetings around mitigation for the Ala Wai channel. Page 33 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 Kauai has adopted the plumbing code. They have disagreed with the State Building Council on this. They've removed the International Plumbing Code as an option, interestingly the Plumbers Union cannot support the code as stated. Four voted to take it out, it is in the Mayor's court now to determine what they are going to be doing. They're still working on addressing their parakeet problem. Council Member Kagawa reported that the Kauai Visitor Bureau had issued a report to the Council, and they are feeling the pinch with over tourism. They're limited options, they would like to acknowledge the problem and start thinking of proactive solutions. There island is maxed without even having to try marketing it, the traffic as it relates to tourism is really, really horrendous. And then Council Member Felicia Cowden was also there for some other business, and did share with the body that 400 acres in Waimea, North Shore side were purchased for preservation. So she thought that was something that would be of interest to everyone. Maui County also shared, that over tourism is an issue. They are looking at the Palau tourism pledge as a model for their island. I pointed out that our county was the first to enact the pono pledge, so I shared that resource with the Executive Committee and we are finding ways to strengthen it. And make it a part of the visitor's experience. Similar to how when you arrive to the mainland to Hawaii there's an Ag form that you fill out. We're wanting to shift that to be electronic, and then also having an educational moment where people have a better understanding of the culture, of this place so they know how to just take proper care and respect in interacting with residents and the environment. Maui Council is split over potential lawsuit for the Lahaina injection well issue, they have a committee meeting actually to decide today on what they're going to do. They've also passed a resolution to spend $25,000 to do some exploratory work to see if they have a case against Bank of America, because we read in the news recently that the state won't be pursuing action on this front. And Chair King from Maui also shared that they formalized a temporary interaction group a TIG to determine tax reform. They always talk about the tax structure during budget, and then when budget is pau they don't act on it. So this year they're wanting to do something. And it's going to have a variety of carrots and sticks. There was also discussion about Council Member Richards, and his presidential appointment to NACo (National Association of Counties). He also serves on the WIR (Western Interstate Region) Board. And so there's talk about playing musical chairs again. I just want everybody to be assured that Hawaii County will have one of the seats. Right now we have two members on NACo, and two on WIR, and each of the counties has a seat at the table. So I'm going to ensure that even if there is a shift, in who has a seat at the table that Hawaii County has one of those seats. Page 34 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 Okay, regarding our 2020 Legislative Package. We are so behind, everyone on the AC (Action Committee) recognizes that and we're going to have to start earlier next year. Some resolutions that were put forward, were very regional specific. And so the delegates from the respective counties hesitated to even share them, knowing full well that they only benefit specific communities across the state. I want to thank this body, at the last meeting you shared what was on your mind that we wanted to see lifted up in terms of priorities for this body. And I'm happy to say that we were the most prepared. And they were very impressed by the list that we offered up, so I want to thank you all for your mana`o. In that time we've had other counties share priorities based on the list that I offered up to the body. Kauai is looking at managing the judicial system for more humane intake and outplacement of adjudicated peoples. They agree with Chair Chung in wanting to soften some of the Sunshine Law restrictions, and there was also discussion about wanting to take a hard look at the ERS (Employee Retirement System) system cost. Oahu is not opposed, as Council Member Richards has pointed out, to tackling TAT (Transit Accommodation Tax). However he thinks that the legislature would like to see exactly what we would be using TAT money for, before they entertain a conversation around giving the counties greater access to this fund. Oahu also wants to see concrete plans to deal with over tourism develops, and they also agree that they would like to see some aspects of the Sunshine Law relaxed. Maui County is meeting on September 6 to discuss what priorities they would lift up. And so from here on out the process is going to be, we as a body need to develop resolutions. And I hesitate to give anybody direction to do so, until we have our priorities in place. I am happy to circulate a full list of everything that this Council has offered up, but we're kind of seeing certain things rise to the surface. And so just putting it out there. The official process would be for our Council to develop a resolution that needs to be passed, and then lifted up to the HSAC Executive Committee in order to be discussed and formalized in our package. I would be willing to waive things out of committee, so they can be heard by full Council in order to meet certain deadlines. And just so this body is aware, September 13 is the deadline for October 2 Council meetings, and September 27 is the deadline for our October 16 Council meetings. Think the idea is that, we would like to have some resolutions lifted up in October for discussions at the HSAC Executive Committee meeting at the end of October. Finally Becker Communication was there in the room. The Executive Committee will be developing a list of public relations and website priorities, so that Becker Communications and other PR (Public Relations) firms across the state can Page 35 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 submit a proposal for work to assist HSAC with its communication and outreach activities. So with that any questions, or comments? MS. LEE LOY: I wanted to know who the author or the introducer was on the plumbing, walking back that plumbing code. Because I understand HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statues) to be a little different, which applies to everybody. So I'm really interested. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: I didn't ask that specifically, but I can get that information. MS. LEE LOY: That be great, thanks. CHR KIERKIEWICZ: No other comments or questions? Awesome. We have a motion on the floor to close file Communication 428, all in favor please say Ic aye. Vote on Comm. 428: The motion to close file on Comm. 428 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. (There were none.) BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of ORDINANCES: business, Bills for Ordinances. (There were none.) CHR KIERKIEWICZ: Do I have a motion to adjourn? Page 36 GREDC-11 September 3, 2019 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 10:47 a.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn MENT: the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Kierkiewicz — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. CHR. KIERKIEWICZ: The meeting is adjourned at 10:47 a.m. Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Chair Governmental Relations and Economic Development Committee AK/rk �0/14/lq (Date) Page 37